Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Time for Serbia to right an historic wrong / "The Jerusalem Post" September 8, 2012

Aleksandra's Note: A great job by Nick Tintor in summarizing an often polarizing issue that is in need of resolution after all these years. I wanted to extend a special note of gratitude to The Jerusalem Post for publishing this important piece, and keeping it online despite the hostility it has evoked in some of the Post's readers. The Post is to be commended for this. Anyone who refers to Serbian "anti-Semitism" during WWII or General Mihailovich's alleged "collaboration with the Nazis" clearly is repeating the usual communist propaganda that has so infiltrated the historical record regarding the Chetnik movement and its heroic leader.

One would only need to go to the source itself, the Nazis, to learn just how "cooperative" they felt General Mihailovich and his Serbs were in fulfilling Hitler's agenda in the former Yugoslavia.

And one would only need to investigate the record of the other former Yugoslav republics such as Croatia to get a better perspective on Serbia's record toward the Jews.

Thank you, Jerusalem Post, for having the guts to publish this fine piece by Nick Tintor and to keep it online without caving in to the bullies.

Sincerely,

Aleksandra Rebic

*****

The Jerusalem PostNick TintorSeptember 8, 2012

On the 66th anniversary of his death this year, it’s time the Serbian people complete their break from their Communist Yugoslav past and rehabilitate Draza Mihailovich to his proper and rightful place in history.

Photo: Reuters

Statue of Tito in Belgrade, Serbia

As Serbia continues on its path to joining the European Union and breaking from its Yugoslav Communist past, it is also embarking on one final and controversial process in that transformation.

In Belgrade, the government has appointed a Commission for the Rehabilitation of Gen. Draza Mihailovich, the World War II Serbian guerrilla leader who was executed by the Communists in 1946 for treason and collaboration with the enemy.

For more than 60 years, the Tito-led Yugoslav Communist regime wrote its own version of Yugoslavia’s complex WII past which cast Mihailovich and his Chetnik guerrillas as little more than Nazi collaborators who murdered their own people.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

What the regime Communists and their numerous supporters throughout all the new republics in former Yugoslavia and around the world fail to mention in their narrative of that terrible war is the following version, much of which was carefully edited and concealed from the people of Yugoslavia by the Communist Party.

In March 1941 when the Yugoslavia’s then-Regent Prince Paul agreed to sign a non-aggression pact with Hitler’s Germany, the Serbian people expressed their outrage by protesting in the thousands on the streets of Belgrade shouting, “Better a grave than a slave.” “Better war than the pact.”

They were soon to get their wish.

Two days later, Serbian staff officers mounted a bloodless coup and replaced Regent Prince Paul with the young King Peter and immediately renounced the pact.

Germany and its Axis allies invaded Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, and within two weeks had quickly overwhelmed the thin Yugoslav defenses.

During those early days of Yugoslavia’s fall, a few staff officers with the army refused to accept and recognize the capitulation and regrouped in the hills of Ravna Gora, 80 km. southwest of Belgrade, and raised the first banner of large-scale resistance in all of Europe. Their leader was then-Staff Col. Dragoljub (Draza) Mihailovich, a career officer who embarked on his ultimately tragic mission to protect and defend his people.

In those early days of May 1941, Tito’s Communist partisans were still not active, only organizing months later after Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

Mihailovich’s Chetniks soon began small-scale attacks against German forces in Serbia that quickly increased in scope and scale. British and American liaison officers who were parachuted into enemy territory to work with and support Mihailovich’s Chetniks sent back thousands of radio transmissions, many now declassified after more than 60 years of secrecy, which document the scale of the Serb guerrilla campaign.

Hitler ordered Mihailovich’s capture and posters offering 100,000 Reichsmarks for Mihailovich, dead or alive, were posted across Serbia. Those same posters showed pictures of both Mihailovich and the Communist leader Tito. But following the Communist victory, only the Tito portion of that poster was ever reproduced for the Yugoslav history books.

By 1944 the British, who had influence over the Balkans, made the decision to stop all support to Mihailovich and to support Tito’s partisans on the premise that he was “killing more Germans.”

Despite losing British military aid, Mihailovich’s actions continued to serve the Allied cause in Europe, organizing rescues of downed American and British air crew who had been shot down over Yugoslavia during bombing runs over the Ploesti oil fields in Romania.

By 1944, the Serbian Chetniks were harboring hundreds of downed pilots all over Serbia, providing shelter and succour under incredibly difficult conditions.

American officers working with the OSS, the precursor to today’s CIA, organized with Mihailovich’s support Operation Halyard, which today stands as the largest rescue in United States Air Force history of downed airmen from behind enemy lines. In the summer of 1944, from a makeshift airfield in Pranjane, Serbia, Mihailovich’s Chetniks helped almost 500 airmen return back to safety so that they could fight another day.

Convicted in a Communist trial, Mihailovich was executed by firing squad on July 17, 1946. Unlike the Communist Serbs in Belgrade who tried to erase his legacy and dishonored his name, the free world never forgot just who Mihailovich was after he was condemned.

Today, Mihailovich’s picture hangs in the British Special Forces Club in London alongside France’s great patriot, Gen. Charles DeGaulle, who was one of Mihailovich’s great supporters.

In 1948, president Harry Truman awarded Mihailovich the Legion of Merit Medal. The citation states, “General Mihailovich and his forces, although lacking adequate supplies, and fighting under extreme hardships, contributed materially to the Allied cause and were instrumental in obtaining a final Allied victory.”

President Ronald Reagan was evocative in his admiration of Mihailovich, writing in 1979 that “the tragedy of Draza Mihailovich cannot erase the memory of his heroic and often lonely struggle against the twin tyrannies that afflicted his people, Nazism and Communism.”

On the 66th anniversary of his death this year, it’s time the Serbian people complete their break from their Communist Yugoslav past and rehabilitate Mihailovich to his proper and rightful place in history as a man who gave his life for the Allied cause against tyranny in Europe during WWII.

The writer is a mining industry executive in Toronto and past president of the Canadian Serbian Council.

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Aleksandra Rebic is an American of Serbian heritage born and raised in the Chicago area, the daughter of Serbian parents who emigrated to the United States from the former Yugoslavia and made America their home. She is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communication Studies from the School of Speech.

Aleksandra has been an aspiring writer and student of history all of her life. While employed at a successful data processing company with both national and international clientele, she dedicates much of her free time to the freelance writing that she hopes will make a difference. Her focus and interests cover a wide range of topics, and her goal is to move and inspire people to see things from a different perspective. Aleksandra has been published in both Serbian and American newspapers and extensively online on the World Wide Web. She is co-author, with her father Rade Rebic, of the book “Dragoljub-Draza Mihailovich i Drugi Svetski Rat: Istorija Jedne Velike Izdaje” (“Dragoljub-Draza Mihailovich and the Second World War: History of a Great Betrayal”) in the Serbian language, and of a number of reports that she has issued through the years, including “Serbian 1,000 Points of Light,” “Stepinac,” “The Politics of Propaganda,” and “Jasenovac,” all in the English language.

Aleksandra has also established two websites online dedicated to educating both Serbs and non-Serbs about the true role that the Serbian people have played in world events throughout history. The two websites are:

With her father, she has organized and hosted several successful events including the 1993 "Mihailovich 100th Birthday Celebration" and the 1994 "Halyard Mission 50th Anniversary Commemoration," both held in Chicago.

Her current project in progress, together with her father, is "Heroes of Serbia," a special tribute book honoring the pivotal role the Serbs played in the Allied victory in World War One. “Heroes of Serbia” will be published in both the English and Serbian language in 2015, with the ultimate goal of having the tribute published in multiple languages.

Aleksandra remains a loyal American patriot who believes in the Serbian cause. Her many other interests and passions include photography, travel, nature and the outdoors, entertainment (movies, music, and television), reading, spending quality time with family and friends, planning and enjoying outings and new adventures, and sharing her Christian faith.

She currently resides and works in the Chicagoland area and is available for speaking engagements.